A careless resident flooded four flats after going for a night out and leaving the kitchen tap running.

Furious neighbours living in the five storey block of flats at Framlington Place, in the Spital Tongues area of Newcastle, were raised at around 12.45am, today when water began streaming through their ceilings.

The flood began in a flat on the fourth floor. It worked its way down through the building, soaking four flats.

Firefighters were called and were forced to break into the flat to turn the tap off.

They spent two hours draining the building using industrial suction equipment.

Craig Patrick from Colby Court Fire Station in Newcastle said: "There's a lot of water damage in all four flats and all the electrics are unusable but it doesn't look like there's any structural damage.

"We had to work our way down the flats and we left buckets in place because the water will continue dripping for sometime. Everybody was woken up by it."

Ceilings are due to be checked today in case any structural damage has been caused.